1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of digital audio/video storage and playback systems. More particularly, the invention relates to a compact disc system in which digital audio/video content is stored, indexed and played back from a mass storage device such as a hard drive.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of high capacity compact disc (hereinafter “CD”) and digital video disc (“DVD”) players have been developed over the years. These players typically include a rotary carousel or, alternatively, a plug-in cartridge with a plurality of slots for holding CD/DVDs to be played. Some more advanced CD/DVD players/changers are capable of storing several hundred CD/DVDs at one time.
There are several drawbacks associated with these devices, however. First, as the number of CD/DVDs that a CD,/DVD player can accommodate increases, so does the size of the CD/DVD player. Accordingly, CD/DVD players which are capable of storing 100 or more CD/DVDs are typically require large and bulky, requiring a significant amount of shelf space.
In addition, once a user loads all of his CD/DVDs into one of these high-capacity players, his CD/DVDs are no longer easily accessible. In order to remove a particular CD/DVD from his player, a user may need to search through several hundred CD/DVDs to find the one he needs. Accordingly, this type of system may be burdensome to users who need to swap out their CD/DVDs on a regular basis (e.g., users who own a car CD/DVD player). Finally, these “high-capacity” systems present a serious limitation in that the user cannot add CD/DVDs to the unit once the user reaches the storage capacity of the unit. Thus, said systems are impractical for cataloging growing media libraries.